


Not today

by Menatiera



Series: Fuck you, Russos! [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anything else in the A/N because I don't want to accidentally spoil you, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Endgame Fix-It, Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending, M/M, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Spoilers, anyway, but Stony if you squint, interpretation is up to you, or just Steve pining and in denial, or pre-stony if you want to, this is basically gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 18:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18597457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/pseuds/Menatiera
Summary: Information in A/N because it is heavily Avengers: Endgame spoilers. I'm going to write a whole lot of fix-it fics for that movie.Also my fill for the Star Spangled Bingo - N3 - Free Square.Steve POV.No character bashing at all. I love them all.The title of the series comes from my dear Winnie this time.Betaed by my favorite rebelmeg who is awesome and faster than Quicksilver.





	Not today

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Не сегодня](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19002616) by [Leshaya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leshaya/pseuds/Leshaya)



> So we are all enraged about Tony's fate, right?
> 
> I had to save him. Well, Steve had to save him. With the help of the Avengers.
> 
> Everyone lives, because that's how I roll, baby.

He didn't think about it when he picked it up - there hadn't been time, he had to stop Thanos. He didn't think about it later, when he slowly got to his feet, facing Thanos and his army seemingly alone, with nothing but desperation and stubbornness in his heart, wondering if he should say ‘ _I can do this all day_ ,’ like he had said it countless other times, but it would've been flat and empty because he knew that he couldn't, now. Not alone.

But he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t alone in the future since he had the Avengers, and he wasn’t alone in this either.

He didn't think about it during the battle, what it meant that he had been able to lift Mjolnir, that he was worthy of the power of a god, that he passed a test he wasn't sure he would. He didn't think. He was busy fighting.

But what had it been worth? Nothing.

He watched Tony's hand falling, he watched Pepper breaking down, he watched Rhodey crying silently while he hugged the Spiderkid to his chest as he tried desperately to get to Tony but failed, trapped between metal-covered arms.

A soulless hammer’s approval wasn't worth shit because he couldn't save Tony - he never had been able to save the ones who mattered the most - and God it hurt…

His chest hurt and his head hurt and everything hurt but not on a physical level.

Steve stepped closer, like in a dream.

The Stones were in the dirt where they had fallen once Tony's will wasn’t binding them to the suit, and there were no gauntlets anymore, nothing to do, nothing to bring back, and even if there were, what would it matter? Starting an endless loop of bringing back the last one who tried until someone failed spectacularly and made everything a bigger mess? Tony wouldn’t have wanted that, and...

Steve kneeled down.

Tony couldn't be _dead._ That was… impossible.

Steve couldn't live in a world where Tony - brilliant, genius, heartfelt hero; the protector of all life; the phoenix who always came back - didn't.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, refusing to give in to the tears forming in his eyes.

No way. There had to be a way.

There had to be a way of cutting the wire.

Steve let go of Mjolnir - forged from a heart of a star, Thor had said once, but what were stars compared to that shine in the middle of a chest - and grabbed the mud. He didn't have a gauntlet and he couldn't wield one even if he had.

“I can do this all day if I have to,” he whispered, this time it wasn’t just a statement, but a promise and a threat too.

He didn't have a gauntlet and he couldn't wield _all_ the Stones. He wasn’t Tony Stark who made impossible look effortless. But he could, maybe _._ .. Steve couldn’t do the impossible but he could do what _he_ was best at, changing the odds, rigging the game and refusing to give up until the universe had to bend to his will.

He could wield _one_ Stone.

Steve swallowed and dug into the mud and picked up the green Time Stone.

“Bring him back,” Steve demanded as the stone warmed up in his palm and he squeezed it.

The stone resisted.

 _Sacrifices to our power are final,_ they whispered, all, in Steve's mind. _We shouldn't undo our own price,_ they said, somehow the orange one the loudest. Steve gritted his teeth and picked that one up too, closing his right hand around it, the broken shield an uncomfortable weight whenever he moved.

“Bring Iron Man back,” he demanded again. He didn’t care that he argued with a rock. “You’ve already got one soul from us. You don't get to have another. Just ten minutes. Just a ten minutes younger version of him.”

The stones were hot and heavy and the smell of burned flesh filled Steve’s nose as they glowed and he had to bit his lip to not scream in pain - but this was physical pain, this was something he was familiar with in all his life. He had been living with it as long as he could remember, and the Stones couldn’t throw anything new at him even if they burned through his palms until there was nothing left of his hands.

It still would’ve been better than the emptiness, than living a world without Earth’s Best Defender, without the soul of the Avengers team, without his friend, without Tony.

“Bring. Him. Back,” he hissed, his head pounding, his vision blurring - or was it glowing? - and…

A hand on his shoulder.

“Bring him back,” Bucky said, loud and clear. Steve didn’t know where he came from or when he got there, but it didn’t matter. The hand on his shoulder eased the heat in his body for a second, before the burn came back with full force, and the hand spasmed but didn’t let go.

Another clasp on his other shoulder. “Bring him back,” a new voice said - and Steve recognized the mechanical undertones, it was Nebula.

The next touch came on his back. “Bring him back.” Rhodey.

Another touch. “Please,” the faint whisper came from the Spiderkid.

Steve couldn’t see anything. He was on fire, two Infinity Stones working to eat themselves through his flesh and bone with their hot power, still resisting. But it got better. With each voice, with each addition, the hurt spread out, tiny pieces being transferred to everyone, until it felt almost bearable, but the Stones still resisted.

Someone covered Steve’s right palm with their - her - own. “I won’t ask a second time,” Pepper sniffed, tears still in his voice, but her tone calm and with the grim determination that was specific of her. “Give my husband back.”

The power yanked and Steve nearly fell on his face but someone caught him, held him up through his left hand. “I’ve been your master,” Stephen Strange calmly stated, “bring him back.”

The tension broke in a way strings tear on a violin: with a vicious, deafening sound, the snap of it echoed through everyone connected to it, washed through them in a wave like a tsunami: irresistible, intense, overwhelming. Steve felt in his bones, in his muscles, in his veins; but he also felt in his mind, in his heart and in his soul.

 _Be as your heart desires_ , the two Stone whispered.

Steve felt everyone who was connected to him - not just the ones who were touching him, but the chain of people who touched them, all of the Avengers.

Everyone wanted him back, so desperately, and faced with this amount of love, care, compassion - the universe didn’t have a chance but to bow down and obey.

Tony gasped for air and opened his eyes, startled.

The burn marks on his side, on his face weren’t there anymore. Gone, like they never happened, because they had never - that was another body, a body ten minutes after this one.

Tony looked up. “Wh- how?” he spluttered, but stopped when Pepper basically collapsed on him.

The Stones, one green and one orange, fell to the ground again, and Steve bowed his head and whispered his gratitude to them before he nearly followed them, but strong arms kept him up again, two pair from both sides - and both felt familiar.

Bucky held him up like he had done it countless times in their childhood, and from the other side, Natasha’s embrace was comfortable from his time in the future as lost and lonely Captain America.

“Surprise, Steve,” she said, laugh in her voice. “The Soul Stone said something along the lines of you being lucky enough for a buy one, get one free sale.”

Steve tried to laugh too, but it turned into just a weak chuckle and then he passed out, relieved.


End file.
